United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

The content of Iran's response to a P5+1 negotiating offer was still unknown late Saturday, but Iran indicated "that it has no plans to meet a key Western demand that it stop enriching uranium," the Associated Press reported.[1] -- None of the recipients would speak on the record about the substance of Iran's response. -- Meanwhile, "Iranian state media reported Friday that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, have agreed to hold the latest in a series of talks in the second half of July," but one European official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AP that "no firm decision will be made by Solana to meet with Jalili until the contents of the Iranian response had been evaluated," Ali Akbar Dareini said. -- IRNA, Iran's official news agency, reported Saturday that "delivered to the Foreign Office by Iranian Ambassador to London Rasoul Movahedian on Friday evening. -- It came after the response was also delivered to the office of European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in Brussels. It was also understood that copies were being sent to the capitals of all the respective countries."[2] -- The New York Times, citing unnamed "officials involved in the diplomacy," reported late Saturday on the content of the response, saying that "Iran’s response failed to address the crucial issue of its uranium enrichment activities."[3] -- Elaine Sciolino reported that Iran's response consisted of "a letter by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki," which said "that Iran would be willing to open comprehensive negotiations with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the six world powers that proposed the incentives. The letter did not specifically address the proposals they presented last month." -- The New York Times led its story with the sentence "Iran’s nuclear policy has not changed, an Iranian government spokesman said Saturday in Tehran, confirming that Iran would not comply with Security Council resolutions requiring it to stop enriching uranium," and quoted snippets of Mottaki's letter suggesting Iranian intransigence. -- "The Iranian response was filled with criticism of the way the six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China — have conducted the diplomacy," Sciolino said. "'The time for negotiating from the condescending position of inequality has come to an end,' the response said, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules." -- However, Sciolino said that a "senior European official involved in the negotiations said Saturday that Mr. Solana would meet with Saeed Jalaili [sic], Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, in the second half of July," Sciolino said, confirming IRNA's statement Friday. -- Reuters agreed, citing an E.U. spokesperson who said that "in principle, the position is to respond favorably" to the idea of a meeting.[4] -- Reuters said Mottaki's letter was four pages long. -- In an intriguing blog entry on the Los Angeles Times web site, Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi reported that "Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, took a trip from Tehran today to the holy city of Qom" to meet behind closed doors with "three key Iranian clerics": Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, Ayatollah Lotfullah Safi Golpayegani, and Ayatollah Jaffar Sobhani.[5] -- "Iranian politicians often seek political and religious cover before making bold moves, in case something backfires," Mostaghim and Daragahi said; they speculated inconclusively about the reason for the meetings, which were reported by the "usually rather reliable Persian-language news website Tabnak, but other sources also confirmed the information." ...

TEHRAN -- Iran indicated Saturday that it has no plans to meet a key Western demand that it stop enriching uranium, a day after Tehran sent the European Union a response to an international offer of incentives for halting enrichment.

The content of that response has not been made public and there was caution about the prospects of progress.

"It was not something that made us jump up and down for joy," said one European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential. "We are in a holding mode until we get a chance to look at it more closely."

White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters traveling with President Bush en route to a G-8 summit in Japan that the U.S. administration was still evaluating Iran's response.

"We're going out to consult with our allies about what Iran's response means," Perino said. "We'll just have to see how this is received by others before we make a formal response."

A positive response could open the way to renewed negotiations that might help cool recent sharp exchanges between officials on both sides. In recent weeks the U.S. and Iran have traded threats and warnings over possible American or Israeli military action.

But Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham insisted Tehran would not change the central part of its controversial program. Uranium enrichment can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material for a warhead. Iran insists its enrichment work is intended to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity.

"Iran's stand regarding its peaceful nuclear program has not changed," Elham told reporters. He said Iran was ready to negotiate on its program "within the framework of the international rules and regulations."

He did not elaborate. But Iranian state media reported Friday that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, have agreed to hold the latest in a series of talks in the second half of July.

The European official, however, said no firm decision will be made by Solana to meet with Jalili until the contents of the Iranian response had been evaluated.

Iran's ambassador to Belgium presented the response to the incentives package to Solana in Brussels, Iranian state media reported Friday. European officials said they were studying the Iranian response and were consulting among themselves and with the United States, Russia, and China on what to do next.

Acting on behalf of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, Solana offered the modified package of economic incentives to Iran during his June visit to the country. The offer is meant to persuade Iran to halt enrichment, which the six world powers fear Iran could use to produce weapons.

Iran has repeatedly insisted it will not give up enrichment, but it had said the incentives package had some "common ground" with Tehran's own proposals for a resolution to the standoff.

Separately, E.U. nations also approved new sanctions against Iran in June, imposing additional financial and travel restrictions on a list of Iranian companies and experts, including the country's largest bank.

The six nations -- the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain, and Germany -- first offered a package of economic, technological, and political incentives to Tehran nearly two years ago on condition that it suspend enrichment.

The standoff has led to increasingly tense exchanges about the possibility of a military strike by Israel or the U.S. An Israeli military exercise last month was seen as a warning to Iran.

The commander of Iran's élite Revolutionary Guards has said that Iran would consider any military action against its nuclear facilities as the beginning of a war. However, the general also has said he thinks a strike by Iran's adversaries is unlikely.

--Associated Press Writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna, Austria.

LONDON -- The British government said Saturday that it was considering Iran's response to a letter sent by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany over the country's civilian nuclear program.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Britain received the response on Friday evening, which secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili described as "constructive and creative" and focused "on common ground."

"We are now consulting with our E3 plus 3 partners," the spokesman told IRNA. The response was delivered to the Foreign Office by Iranian Ambassador to London Rasoul Movahedian on Friday evening.

It came after the response was also delivered to the office of European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in Brussels. It was also understood that copies were being sent to the capitals of all the respective countries.

Western diplomats declined to disclose details but [a] spokeswoman for Solana, Cristina Gallach, was reported to have described a phone conversation between Jalili and Solana as "constructive" and that "all the noises are positive."

The British Foreign Office spokesman said that he had not seen Iran's reply himself but understood that it was by way of a letter signed by Foreign Minister Manucher Mottaki.

The response comes after the foreign ministers of the 5+1 sent a letter to Iran offering to open negotiations to resolve the dispute over the country's civilian nuclear program. It was delivered by Solana in Tehran last month with a new package of incentives.

PARIS -- Iran’s nuclear policy has not changed, an Iranian government spokesman said Saturday in Tehran, confirming that Iran would not comply with Security Council resolutions requiring it to stop enriching uranium.

“Iran’s stand regarding its peaceful nuclear program has not changed,” the spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, said in his weekly meeting with reporters.

His remarks came a day after Iran formally responded to a proposal of incentives aimed at resolving the impasse over the country’s nuclear program. Iran’s response failed to address the crucial issue of its uranium enrichment activities, according to officials involved in the diplomacy.

Instead, the response, which came in a letter by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, said that Iran would be willing to open comprehensive negotiations with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the six world powers that proposed the incentives. The letter did not specifically address the proposals they presented last month.

A senior European official involved in the negotiations said Saturday that Mr. Solana would meet with Saeed Jalaili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, in the second half of July.

The official and others involved in the diplomacy expressed unease that they would be pressured to negotiate with Iran even though it continued enriching uranium.

“There is nothing unexpected in the response, but it forces us to say, ‘They want to negotiate so we want to negotiate,’” one official said. “We still have to decide on the conditions for negotiations. We are very skeptical.”

The Iranian response was filled with criticism of the way the six world powers -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China -- have conducted the diplomacy.

“The time for negotiating from the condescending position of inequality has come to an end,” the response said, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules.

The letter added that such treatment “will not remain unnoticed in the eyes of intelligent statesmen.”

It also called United Nations Security Council sanctions illegal and spoke of a “lack of trust” because of the “duplicitous behavior of certain big powers,” the officials said.

It accused some world powers of interpreting human rights according to their own “self-interest” and causing “irreparable harm” to the nations of the region and their own countries.

In contrast, the letter said, Iran shows a “compassionate approach and behavior” in its international relations and in its efforts to bring stability to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It said Iran’s policy on negotiations over its nuclear program was to “find common ground through logical and constructive actions” and a “positive attitude.”

BRUSSELS -- The European Union's foreign policy chief is willing to meet Iran's chief negotiator soon, after Tehran replied to a package of incentives from major powers for it to curb its nuclear program, an E.U. spokeswoman said on Saturday.

She said E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana held first telephone consultations on Saturday on Iran's written response to proposals he delivered to Tehran last month on behalf of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China.

"One of the things to decide is to meet (Iranian national security chief Saeed) Jalili, and if so when. In principle, the position is to respond favourably," Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, told Reuters.

She said Jalili had requested such a meeting in a telephone call with Solana on Friday in which he stressed "common ground."

Gallach declined to give details of the content of the Iranian reply, saying the major powers were still studying the four-page letter from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and holding consultations.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed three rounds of mild sanctions on Iran over its refusal to comply with international demands to suspend the enrichment of nuclear fuel, which the West suspects its aimed at developing weapons.

The Islamic Republic insists its program is purely for civilian energy purposes and has said it will never give up what it regards as its legal right to enrichment.

It was not clear whether Mottaki's letter addressed Solana's proposal for a six-week preliminary phase of talks in which Tehran would stop adding new centrifuges to its uranium enrichment program, while the six powers would undertake not to make any new moves on sanctions.

The major powers have said they will only enter formal negotiations on the package of economic, technological, and political incentives if Iran suspends all uranium enrichment.

In Tehran, government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said Iran had no intention of discussing its "right to enriching uranium."

"Iran's stance has not changed (on uranium enrichment) and we are ready to hold talks in the framework of preserving Iran's nuclear rights," he told a news conference.

SEEKING SPIRITUAL ADVICE ON NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY
By Ramin Mostaghim (Tehran) and Borzou Daragahi (Beirut)

As world powers studied Iran's response to a package of proposals meant to convince it to stop enriching uranium, a curious series of meetings took place today in Iran.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, took a trip from Tehran today to the holy city of Qom, home to some of the most powerful clerics in the Shiite Muslim faith, which is prevalent in Iran and Iraq.

That's according to the usually rather reliable Persian-language news website Tabnak, but other sources also confirmed the information.

In Qom, he visited three key Iranian clerics for closed-door meetings. They were Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, Ayatollah Lotfullah Safi Golpayegani, and Ayatollah Jaffar Sobhani.

All are staunchly pro-Islamic Republic but have been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's handling of the economy. All are "marja," sources of emulation at the top of the Shiite clergy. No reporters were allowed in for photo-ops, which is unusual, and the state-controlled news outlets were mum about the sessions.

Iranian politicians often seek political and religious cover before making bold moves, in case something backfires.

Analysts say that when Iranian political leaders such as Ahmadinejad, experienced council chairman Ali Akbar Rafasanjani or parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani visit Qom to consult with the marja, it is sometimes to appease them or gain their blessing ahead of a major change in policy. Examples include Iran's 2003 decision to temporarily halt uranium enrichment or its 2006 decision to meet directly with Americans over Iraq.

Jalili is close to Ahmadinejad, whose circle has been the most strident voice arguing against halting enrichment, which the U.S. demands as a precondition for negotiations. Today, Gholam Hossein Elham, the spokesman of Ahmadinejad's government, told reporters "that nothing has changed" with regard to Iran's stance on nuclear technology, which presumably includes the hot-button issue of enrichment.

But his words shouldn't be taken too seriously. He made similar remarks when the package was first presented last month, and was largely ignored.

1. To the chagrin of Ahmadinejad, powerful moderates in the government want to bend on the issue of enrichment, either by accepting the so-called "freeze-for-freeze" proposal to stop adding new uranium-enriching centrifuges, or by suspending enrichment altogether. Jalili and his camp, led by Ahmadinejad, want political backing for going up against them.

2. Ahmadinejad wants to do a U-turn and accept some kind of compromise with the West, but needs some political cover.

3. Jalili is a relative political newcomer. Unlike his well-connected predecessor, Larijani, he doesn't have the political standing to make any bold moves, and wants to improve his ties to the clergy in order to do so.